Anyone with a bit of spare dosh is driving them. They’re the ultimate status symbol, representing wealth and style. And they shout — loudly — stuff the poor.
But envy them or not, 4x4s are here to stay, spray-on mud and all. According to Carina Timcke of Land Rover Experience in Inchanga, KwaZulu-Natal, ”only about 5% or 6% of people with 4x4s ever take them off-road”.
Let’s face it, how many people do you know who use their muscular four-wheel-drive vehicles to venture along that road less travelled or explore anywhere more dangerous than a shopping mall or the route to the office and back?
In fact, most 4×4 owners wouldn’t know a diff-lock from a dipstick.
Timcke says: ”We put hundreds of 4×4 owners through our courses, and we’ve actually had guys who’ve owned their four-wheel-drive vehicles for six years and have never used their diff-locks. They’re petrified of that little knob.”
For the uninformed, your differential allows two-driven wheels on the same axle to turn at different speeds. In gravel, for instance, or in tough Roof of Africa-type conditions, the diff-lock would lock the two wheels together so they would turn together, as opposed to one spinning uselessly and the other having a firm grip. A car equipped with part-time four-wheel-drive usually spends most of its time in two-wheel-drive, with the driver switching to the four-wheel-drive when the occasion warrants it.
In some vehicles, drivers have to climb out to lock and unlock the front hubs manually, while in others the hubs lock automatically when four-wheel-drive is selected. By the way, leaving the hubs locked for normal road driving doesn’t do any harm, but you’ll probably have to take out a bond to pay for your fuel consumption.
If you’re a serious off-roader and you’re shopping around for a vehicle to take you where no man (or woman) has gone before, low-range transmission is crucial, as is the approach angle of the vehicle. Technical aspects such as departure angles and ramp-over angles are not that vital if you’re mostly going to be bounding along good roads.
At Land Rover’s recent launch of the new Discovery at Ithala Game Lodge in northern KwaZulu-Natal, the East Coast’s motoring press contingent put the vehicles through their paces. And came to the conclusion that real men, and women, definitely drive these cars. They’re terrific in the dirt and on the tar, with all the comforts of a luxury sedan, but the toughness, grunt and machismo of a real worker. There’s even a button to press that lifts your rear suspension if you’re negotiating your way through massive boulder-strewn terrain.
But there is a variety of 4x4s on the market, with almost everyone and his dog producing at least one from their stable. They range from itty-bitty little jobbies to the top-of-the-range Porsche Cayenne. Be prepared to fork out a hefty amount, though. Prices vary from about R170000 for a little Daihatsu Terios and about R205000 for an Isuzu 4×4 bakkie to an awesome R730 000 for a V8 Toyota Landcruiser 100. Some are clearly not designed to work seriously on off-road terrain, while others are built specifically for that.
Says Timcke: ”We recommend people actually drive the cars before they buy them. Many a person has gone out and spent a huge amount on a 4×4 and then found it either doesn’t do what they wanted it to do or it is completely wrong for their lifestyle. And that’s what it is. When you buy a 4×4, you’re buying a lifestyle. You can now do things and go places unattainable to you before.
”It’s perfectly okay to buy one of these vehicles to drive your kids to school and back — they have a huge safety factor in that your height and visibility are excellent and in an accident you’re likely to come off better than whoever hits you. But it’s truly sad if you don’t embrace the potential the car offers you.”
Canadian Peter Baker, a Joburg-based vet, explores Africa whenever he can in his Land Rover Defender. In his new book 4×4 African Adventure he details his great African Adventure Safari, during which he and his wife travelled through the vastness of East Africa.
In the preface he says: ”Once you have your 4×4 get it out of the city and learn about what it can do. A number of organisations offer very comprehensive instruction on the art of four-wheel-driving. The sheer excitement of organising and pulling off a safari, be it long or short, is for me just about the most wonderful experience. The people of South Africa are perhaps the only ones with the resources to experience the frontiers of Africa.”
So what are you waiting for?